Bettino Craxi

Bettino Craxi was a major figure in Italian politics during the late 20th century.

He served as the leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993. Craxi also held the office of the 45th Prime Minister of Italy between 1983 and 1987. He was the first member of the PSI to reach the position of Prime Minister. His administration was one of the longest-running governments in the history of the Italian Republic. Because of his power and reach, he is considered a defining leader of the First Italian Republic.

Craxi worked to transform the PSI into a modern, pro-European, and reformist party.

He wanted to move the party away from its traditional role as a working-class, trade union-based organization. Instead, he sought support from white-collar workers and focused on social-democratic ideas. To signal this new direction, he changed the party's symbol in 1978. He replaced the traditional hammer and sickle with a red carnation. This symbol honored the Carnation Revolution that had occurred in Portugal. By the year 1985, the old communist symbols were removed from the party logo entirely.

His political journey began in Milan, where he was born on February 24, 1934.

His father, Vittorio Craxi, was a Sicilian lawyer and an anti-fascist. Because Vittorio opposed the regime of Benito Mussolini, the family faced danger. To protect the young Bettino from political retaliation, he was sent to the Edmondo De Amicis Catholic college. After World War II ended, the family moved to Como in 1945. Craxi joined the PSI at age 17 and studied law and political science. He rose quickly through the ranks by organizing debates and serving in local government in Milan.

As the National Secretary of the PSI, Craxi focused heavily on international relations.

He built strong connections with many leaders of the Western European left. These included figures like François Mitterrand of France and Willy Brandt of Germany. Craxi also used party funds to support socialist parties in other countries. Some of these parties, such as those in Spain and Chile, were banned by local dictatorships. His foreign policy was often assertive and sometimes led to disagreements with the United States. He maintained close ties with various Arab socialist governments in the Mediterranean region.

During his leadership, Craxi navigated intense political crises in Italy. In 1978, the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro was kidnapped and killed by the Red Brigades.

During this crisis, Craxi was one of the few leaders to suggest a "humanitarian solution" to free Moro. This stance drew heavy criticism from the Communist Party, which favored a policy of firmness. Despite these tensions, Craxi helped secure the election of Sandro Pertini as President in 1978. Pertini was the first Socialist to hold that high office. Craxi also worked to distance the PSI from Leninism and authoritarian forms of socialism.

In the early 1990s, Craxi's political career faced a sudden and difficult end.

Judges in Milan launched investigations into the PSI and its financial practices. Craxi was eventually convicted of political corruption and the illicit financing of his party. He admitted that the PSI used illegal funding to pay for expensive political activities. He argued this was necessary because the PSI had much less money than the Christian Democrats or the Communist Party. While he rejected the charges of corruption, the legal outcomes changed the course of Italian politics. His downfall was a major part of the collapse of the First Italian Republic.

Even after his political exit, Craxi remained a figure of intense debate. Some people viewed him as a modernizer who brought Italy into the modern European era. Others saw him as a leader who broke the rules of political finance. He spent his final years away from the center of Italian power. He died on January 19, 2000, in Tunisia.

Today, historians study his life to understand how the Italian political system shifted during his era.